World leaders and tens of thousands of South Africans paid homage to Nelson Mandela yesterday, with US president, Barack Obama, leading the tributes for a man he called the last great liberator of the 20th century.
In an electrifying speech at a rainswept FNB Stadium in Soweto, Mr Obama compared Mandela with Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr and Abraham Lincoln, earning a rapturous ovation from the crowd.
"Mandela demonstrated that action and ideas are not enough," Mr Obama said at the stadium on the outskirts of Johannesburg. "In the arc of his life, we see a man who earned his place in history through struggle and shrewdness, and persistence and faith."
As Mr Obama was cheered, South Africa's president, Jacob Zuma, was jeered. Some in the crowd made the hand gesture used locally to signal a substitution in football matches.
The public humiliation for Mr Zuma was a major setback ahead of next year's general elections and underscored growing displeasure at his government, which has been snarled by allegations of corruption and a failure to deliver on election promises.
South Africans wishing to honour the life of their first black president will today form a guard of honour on the streets of the capital, Pretoria, as Mandela's body is transported to the Union Buildings where he will lie in state until Friday.
About 11,000 troops have been mobilised to provide security for the public mourning that culminates with Mandela's funeral in Qunu village in his tribal home of the Eastern Cape on Sunday.
"Mandela has done it again," the UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon said at yesterday's memorial, gesturing at the stadium and dignitaries where people from various countries and political ideologies had united to celebrate the statesman's life.
In that spirit of reconciliation and unity, Mr Obama shook hands with the Cuban president, Raul Castro, a gesture that prompted talk of a possible rapprochement between the countries.
The rain would not dampen spirits at the stadium, Cyril Ramaphosa, the deputy leader of the African National Congress, said yesterday.
"This is how Nelson Mandela would have wanted to be sent on. These are blessings. In our African tradition it means the gates of heaven are open."
foreign.desk@thenational.ae
